PROCESS AND APPARATUS FOR CLEANING SILICON SURFACE

• Main Authors: CURELOP BRADLEY M, DUBOIS DALE R, SAMOILOV ARKADII, COMITA PAUL B, CARLSON DAVID K
• Format: Patent
• Language: English; Korean
• Published: 20.08.2001
• Edition: 7
• Subjects: BASIC ELECTRIC ELEMENTS; CHEMICAL SURFACE TREATMENT; CHEMISTRY; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY ION IMPLANTATIONOR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL; COATING BY VACUUM EVAPORATION, BY SPUTTERING, BY IONIMPLANTATION OR BY CHEMICAL VAPOUR DEPOSITION, IN GENERAL; COATING MATERIAL WITH METALLIC MATERIAL; COATING METALLIC MATERIAL; DIFFUSION TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL; ELECTRIC SOLID STATE DEVICES NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR; ELECTRICITY; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; INHIBITING CORROSION OF METALLIC MATERIAL OR INCRUSTATION INGENERAL; METALLURGY; SEMICONDUCTOR DEVICES; SURFACE TREATMENT OF METALLIC MATERIAL BY DIFFUSION INTO THESURFACE, BY CHEMICAL CONVERSION OR SUBSTITUTION; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ARTCOLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS

PURPOSE: A process and an apparatus for cleaning a silicon surface is provided to periodically clean and maintain for removing the residues and repairing any corrosion incurred during the wafer cleaning process. CONSTITUTION: A silicon wafer is transferred from a transfer chamber into a processing chamber(41). The processing chamber may be a deposition chamber or other processing chamber wherein the silicon wafer will be processed after the wafer is cleaned, or the processing chamber may be a dedicated cleaning chamber connected to a pump. The processing chamber is evacuated(42) to a process pressure of less than about 1 Torr. The process pressure is the total pressure within the processing chamber while the silicon wafer surface is being cleaned. Hydrogen gas is flowed over a surface of the silicon wafer at a flow rate of up to about 3 standard liters per minute (SLM) through a chamber volume of about 10 liters. At step 44, the silicon wafer is heated to a process temperature not higher than about 800 DEG C. The silicon wafer is maintained at the process temperature and the process pressure while hydrogen gas is flowed across the surface of the silicon wafer until substantially all interfacial oxygen contamination is removed.